Accessory Bag Swap and more Sewing.

Here are the pretties I received from Mary Grace in the Accessory Bag Swap.  I love the bag she made me.  Mary Grace sent a cute handmade card along with new scissors and 4 fat quarters to make her pattern "Susie's Quilted Cinch Sack".  I can't wait to make it. Check out her blog, she made even more adorable bags.   What fun. 

Last Thursdays sew day I finished these 4 Dresden blocks for Edyta Sitar's pattern Dresden Star.  These were started in a workshop sponsored Prairie Star Quilt Guild.  I am trying to remember when this was started. I am thinking sometime in 2010.

When I opened the sack that had all the Dresden's in it, I found I had cut enough for 12.  I am going to make a wall handing using the for with the little inserts, and use the other 8 to make a lap size quilt. Now to pick out background fabric and shashing for the next steps.  This is the 3 and 4th top I am working on this year.

I came down with a head cold. I think it was starting on Thursday.  By Friday, I decided it would do me good to spend the day in bed.  Sure did sleep a lot.

Saturday I woke up feeling a lot better, and when you feel better what should a girl do?? SEW!!



I am still fooling around with the "Lil Twister" tool, and have been trying to figure out how to make a cute pumpkin.  I decided that appliquing black wool on for the face was the way to go.  I have not put the final borders on. It will still need to be quilted and applique the features on.  As you can see I used the scraps to start the mini one. So far, so good.



I found this pumpkin pattern at Four Twin Sister. It is 10 x 7 3/4.  I think it will make a cute mug rug.  Just need to applique the leaf down.  (my touch)  For some reason I was into pumpkins this weekend.  All three projects are using stash!!

Sunday, I got this little quilt done!! I hand quilted this one.  This was one of the "oldies" that I found in the UFO box.  It may go back to the late 80's.

This is a Dresden table topper I started last summer.  I knew I wanted to hand quilt this one. The last few nights I have been working on it.  I am doing free hand quilting.  It is just echoing the Dresden plate. I am pleased how this one is turning out. Another project almost done!

Until next time, happy quilting. 

Mary

2 Christmas Parties and a Finish

At 1:00 on Sunday the quilt bee, "Prairie Friends", that I belong to met at Meson Sabika in Naperville for our annual Christmas gathering.  We almost always do this in January, as the holidays get so busy.  This year 8 of the 9 of us were able to meet and spend a wonderful time together. 

We had  a wonderful buffet with a great assortment of food with the taste of Spain. It even included a glass of champagne and the most incredible desserts. It is our time to catch up from the holidays and enjoy each others company for a few hours. 
Left to right are, Marge, Linda Lynn, Marita, myself, Marcia, Bonnie and Barb. 

We also exchange Christmas gifts.  We pull a name (this year from a glass) to see who we can make or purchase a gift for.  Marcia had my name and made me this darling quilt. I love it.  It suits me to a tee!  My guest bathroom has these colors in it.  I think I know the perfect spot for it.

At 5:00 I went to another Christmas party.  The "Pride of the Prairie" quilt guild held their annual Christmas party at Tamarak Golf Club in Naperville.  It was a lovely evening spent with friends and guild members.  Once again a buffet. Are we getting the picture I will be wearing black for the rest of my life to hide the pounds I gained yesterday??
There were games, swaps, and prizes.  The one swap I did participate in was a pincushion exchange.  I forgot to take a picture of the one I gave, but look at the one I received!  It is the cutest cupcake.  It was nestled in a little box with the cupcake papers.  Too cute.

Another finish!  Princess, for some reason thinks there is a mouse in the top.  She take a running dive, paws the top as if she is looking for something, then lays there looking at you.

The is "Quarter Turn" by Opengate patterns.  I saw this in 2006, got the pattern and fabrics.  I have been working on it, off and on since.  This week I took it to Thursday sew and finished 7 more blocks.  Saturday, I finished the last 3 and put the top together.  Now for a back and it is ready for the quilter.  It feels so good to have another top sewed together.

Hope everyone had a great weekend.  The weather is supposed to get a bit warmer today.  I am spoiled and  enjoy the warmer weather.   Here's to a great week.

Happy Quilting

Mary

Lil Twister Heart

On Monday I decided to give these a try. The top one is 7 inches square.  It is made from the pieces left over from the one below. The squares for the little one are 2.5 inches.  The bottom one is made with 5 inch squares.

These are made from my stash.  The background fabric has been around a long time.  Guess I will have to try making one with 3.5 inch squares.
Did not finish a UFO, but did decrease the stash by a little.
Almost done hand quilting the pink fan quilt.

Have a great day. Thank you for stopping by.

Mary

Oh what a day!!

We had to be outside today. It got up to over 50 degrees. We went to Yorkville and saw they had a new walkway built by the Fox River.  My husband noticed the sky.  You can just see the moon just above the tree line on the right hand side.

Checking the sky, looking East along the Fox River

As we turned to go, the sky to the West was looking just as spectacular.

My husband said these were the clouds in front of the cold front coming through. Still looking West.

We were almost home when I took this one.  It is looking East again.  There were white puffs in areas of the clouds.
I just had to share.  It is so unusual to be out and about in sweatshirts on the 6th of January.  It felt more like Spring.  I kept thinking I was going to see flowers blooming in the woods.

What a beautiful day.
I hope yours was as gorgeous as mine!

Mary

Progress and 3 Wins

Look what I finished today.  It was Thursday sew, and I made it my mission to finish this quilt top.  This is the Prairie Flowers block that we made in the friendship swap group.  I like how it turned out.  Now to make the back, and another project is off my list.  Yea!!

Remember this from the other day.  It is now a little top to hand quilt.  I put this one, and the next together on Wednesday.  Both are now ready for the hand work.

Just before Christmas, I had a couple of "wins".  This first one is from Kris at Dandelion Quilts..  She had made an extra mug rug, and was going to share.  I won the share!!  I love this mug rug.  Such a clever idea.
Kris is having an accessory bag swap.  Check it out.  Who knows, maybe I will be your swap partner.

This little pile of goodies was from the Blog Hop Party that was held earlier in December.  There were 242 blogs included in this hop, sponsored by the Quilting Gallery.  This prize came from Sewhooked.  Shegave this cute paper pieced quilt pattern and the 30's fabrics. This was right up my alley.  I had ordered one of her patterns in early December to play with.  Now I have another great one to try.

This box of wonderful prizes came from Judy in North Carolina.  Her site isShade Tree Quilting. This was so neat.  I have the charm pack ready to use for another "Lil Twister" quilt.  Do not have much for Valentine's Day, and thought this would work out just right.  There was a copy of the 100 Blocks magazine,  which I love.  There are so many great ideas in it.

Just wanted to let you know I did get busy and work on my projects.  Let's hope I can keep it up.  So far so good.

Have a great rest of the week, and weekend.
Happy sewing.

Mary

In the works

This is the Prairie Flower top I am working on. It is from the Friendship Swap Yahoo group.  I have the top put together, now auditioning fabric for the borders.  Princess is not sure that block should be where it is.  Shes helps by rearranging blocks for me.

My friend Kay, from the Thursday sewing group, gave us the pattern to make these cute angels. Well I had to try them. Even though the "Holiday" is over does not mean I am through sewing for next Christmas.  Four more Santa's are in the works.  Actually, there are even more cut out.  Both the angels and Santa's fit very nicely in cards.

I still have a couple hundred yo yo's made up that will become ornaments.  When Dad was in the hospital a couple of years ago, I sat and made yo yo after yo yo.  Something to keep my hands busy while he was recovering.

Okay, on to finishing or working toward a finish.  Found a zip lock bag with these two projects in it. " The Little Quilts" pattern had 9 fans that needed to be appliqued onto background. Done! Now to sew them together and add the borders. Notice how old some of this fabric is. This is some of  the first 30's that came out, shall we say 20 years ago??  These are 5 1/2 inch, unfinished.

Now look at these.  3 1/2 unfinished.  The pattern is by Tina Gravatt, and is dated 1986.  There are 16 fans in this group. These too needed to be added to background fabric. These will be mini quilts to hand quilt. 

After I started sewing my Klosjes together, have decided I do not have enough, so back to stitching individual blocks.  I want to added more colors.  I use leftover scraps to draw my blocks on.  Those yellow, and gold fabrics were extras I had cut for an applique border on another quilt.  They will work just perfect for this project. 

So while watching football games, movies, and catching up on shows I have missed, I have been doing a lot of hand sewing.

I hope all of you have been having fun working on projects.

Happy Sewing

Mary